What a blow for Maserati at Transpac! Soldini: “Hull damaged.”

Giovanni Soldini and Maserati Multi 70, at 4:30 a.m. UTC, while traveling at a sustained speed of between 23 and 24 knots during the Transpac (Los Angeles-Honolulu), suffered a strong impact with a large floating object that damaged the bow of the port hull and the rudder wing of the maxi flying trimaran.

A LONG TRAIL OF FAILURES
This is just one of the latest failures suffered by Maserati during regattas: last May, at the CA 500 (California Offshore Race Week) again as a result of a collision with a floating object, the starboard rudder had been damaged; during the RORC Caribbean 600, in February, on the other hand, there had been a failure of the Solent (the high clew jib). In 2018, at the Rolex Middle Sea Race Maserati had recorded damage to the hydraulic piston that controlled the mainsail luff and the starboard rudder housing. In January 2018, another collision with a semi-submerged object had caused the “usual” right rudder to break.

SOLDINI’S ANALYSIS
But back to the Pacific. From aboard, Giovanni Soldini recounts, “We didn’t understand what it was but it was very big, coming out of the water by at least a meter. It hit the port hull with great force, which is now very damaged, before sliding down the hull and hitting the rudder. The fuse system worked, but the object was so large that we lost the outer half of the rudder wing. We had to stop for an hour: we completely disassembled the wing in order to restart with a usable rudder blade. Now we are sailing keeping the bow up out of the water using the foil: we are waiting for light to do a thorough inspection of the hull, which is equipped with 7 watertight bulkheads, to see if there is a through-hole.” On board with Soldini are Italians Alberto Bona, Guido Broggi and Matteo Soldini, Spaniards Carlos Hernandez Robayna and Oliver Herrera Perez, and Frenchman François Robert.

Maserati Multi 70 and its competitors, the MOD 70 Argo and PowerPlay and the trimaran Paradox, departed Los Angeles on Saturday, July 13, at 12:30 p.m. local time (7:30 p.m. UTC, 9:30 p.m. Italian time) for the 50th edition of Transpac. To try to go around the low-pressure bubble in light winds, Maserati Multi 70 opted for a more northerly course than its competitors, but the conditions predicted by weather models occurred a few hours later, delaying the Italian trimaran.

At 4 a.m. UTC readings, Argo is sailing in the lead at 26 knots, 1680 miles from the finish line in Honolulu, followed 100 miles behind by PowerPlay, which is traveling at 27 knots. Maserati Multi 70 follows at 27 knots, with 1822 miles still to go.

THE VIDEO FROM ABOARD